Hi there, I’ve been lurking around for a while and reading other threads and now I’m the one that needs help My roommate and I took our 8 month netherland dwarf in to get neutered at possibly one of the only decent rabbit vets around where we live… it was an hour drive and he was very upset but we had to do it so he wouldn’t continue to be all over our little 4 month old girl bunny we rescued. The surgery went fine and his genital area looks REALLY good, but he’s been refusing to eat. We’ve seen him nibble some hay and I just saw him take a few sips from his water bottle this morning but that’s about it, other than that we’ve been trying to syringe feed him critical care but he hates it SO much that it takes two of us to feed it to him, one to hold him down and open his mouth and the other to use the syringe. We also syringe fed him some water this morning just to make sure he wasn’t getting dehydrated. We even tried offering him some of the juvenile food instead of his adult food because he LOVES the juvenile food, and even some little pieces of bananas and raisins, but he was not interested.
Our vet sent us home with some pain medication but our baby never really acted like he was in pain so we thought it might have been hindering his ability to feel that he was hungry and took him off of it, but no go. He is also kind of moving his mouth around in a mouthfeel movement (not grinding his teeth at all, there’s no noise, its more like kind of a chewing movement) that I worry might be from us syringe feeding him, although his other bunny mommy says he sometimes does that when he is bored.
He is not lethargic, he still runs around and digs and chews cardboard and I felt his belly and it still feels soft and doughy as usual, but I worry about him not eating and I wonder if anyone has any tips on getting him to eat? I read some people advised vegetables and herbs but he has not been on vegetables before and I worry that that might hurt him more than it helps.
As for his poops, they’re very small and strange shaped, and I’m not sure how many he’s done recently.
I called the vet this morning and all they recommended was to continue syringe feeding him the critical care and water unless we wanted to bring him in and I am not yet sure how good of an idea the hour long drive would be considering how much it stressed him out last time.
We are first time bunny parents and we’ve had him for about six months and this is our first big worry we’ve ever had with him. Thank you so very much for any help!
EDIT: he took a little nibble of food (maybe a pellet or two) and a few nibs of hay and sips of water shortly after I posted this, not sure if this is a good sign or not but he does not seem to be uncomfortable. He is flopped down in front of our little girl’s cage and still does toothpurrs when we pet him.